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Hi! Thanks, for visiting my personal page. Enjoy your brousing. I appreciate your support. And, I hope to see you around.
Johnnie
Johnnie, w/ tenor sax, and Emo, w/ clarinet, jam outdoors
after Emo's appearance at The Tampa Improv Comedy Club, in Ybor City. Johnnie says; "Emo is a funny comedian, and a great
clarinet player!"
Photo by: Joe Citro
Johnnie performs for the fans at a NY Yankee's Spring training game, in Tampa. Photo
by: Chip Grimm
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Johnnie performs outside various venues in Tampa and St.
Petersburg. Johnnie is Tampa's first professional street performing sax player. Johnnie
first began "busking," playing for tips on Franklin St. Mall in downtown Tampa, in 1991 on his alto sax
and flute. Today, Johnnie is in two bands,
as well, one is a professional 20 piece jazz orchestra and the other a 40 piece community
concert pops band. Johnnie has acted locally in a few college productions and worked as an extra and photo double
in major motion pictures in Miami, Tampa, and St. Petersburg. Johnnie also formerly worked in television in Miami
and St. Petersburg, and has freelanced in the industry.
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Johnnie's Gig Updates: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Johnnie's on MySpace
*Please, check out Johnnie's MySpace page.
Just follow the link located on "Johnnie's Links" page, to get the latest gig dates, performance times, an locations. And, Thank you, for your support!
Johnnie to donate Stiff/Walker pay! Skylight Theater pay donated!
As a result of
this horrible Stiff/Walker "Bridezilla's" fiasco, and due to the ways in which, the Boulevard Jazz Orchestra has been victimized
and vilified by the couple, Johnnie is so sickened and disgusted with Seth & Kirsten (Stiff) Walker or any group or entity
associated with them, that rather than keep any money from the wannabe "reality duo," if the band ever gets paid by the "delinquent"
couple, which is very highly unlikely at this point, Johnnie is donating his pay, which would amount to $100.00 to a local
Tampa scholarship fund! And, due to the Skylight Theater's decision to side with the couple, Johnnie has donated the $20,00
in pay he received from the second BJO "video taped"performance at the Skylight Theater in Ybor City, to a local Tampa scholarship
fund. BJO musicians were not compensated for the first 3 hour gig at the Skylight Theater. WE Honors Blvd Jazz Orch Requests Not
To Appear On Bridezilla's
WE Television
has agreed not to show or "to air" footage of the Blvd. Jazz Orchestra or it's musicians, many of whom requested not to appear,
on the Kirsten Stiff//Seth Walker "Bridezilla's wedding episode.
URGENT NOTICE:
As a working musician and veteran television professional, I continue to urge fellow professional
musicians and entertainment professionals to "black ball" or boycott, singer/reality wannabe Kirsten Stiff and husband Seth Walker,
from work in the Tampa Bay area or elsewhere as the couple continue to refuse payment of $2,000.00, due the Blvd. Jazz
Orchestra!
Since the Blvd. Jazz Orchestra performed on Sat., April 18th, 2009, at Nova 535, in St. Petersburg, Florida,
for bride Kirsten Stiff and groom Seth Walker, the
newlyweds refuse payment of the $2,000.00 balance due the Blvd. Jazz Orchestra, for it's timely appearance and contracted performance at their wedding, which was shot for an episode of "Bridezilla's, "possibly" to be aired on WE television! Since Kirsten Stiff and Seth Walker reneged on their signed contract in April, clearly stating the band was to be paid a total of $2,500.00, for performing at their wedding, the
BJO has only received the $500.00 deposit, and has yet to be paid the $2,000.00 balance due for the BJO's performance. I'm urging people to e-mail Women's Entertainment Television to voice opposition to the extortion that
has transpired, on the part of Kirsten Stiff and Seth Walker, as WE provided the couple with the televised platform "to stage"
and "to dramatize their refusal to pay" the 20 piece big band and it's compliment of singers, for services rendered,
and ask WE-TV to refuse to air the Stiff/Walker eposode, until the band is "rightfully paid,"i.e... compensated for it's contracted
work. Or, to write and insist that WE cancel payment, or turn over $2,000, of the $2,500 payment, the couple receives
for appearing on the reality show, to the band! Read the Bridezilla's casting page: http://www.wetv.com/bridezillas/casting What this "reality" couple has done is a disgrace and a categorical disrespect to all working professional
musicians and entertainers, and should not be tolerated or condoned.
*This notice will remain posted, until this matter is resolved.
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Who cares, anyway?
Personal Take on All of This?
It is bad enough that street performers and musicians, or entry level professional entertainers, in the
bay area are often treated like dirt, and lowlier than "panhandlers," "vagrants," and "palm rose peddling" drifters! But,
hey, at least the Weekly Planet, loves a good "palm rose" every now and then, from their palm rose peddler of the year! So,
there must be something to them, besides making, that first date, cringe with that uncomfortable smile, everytime they get
one from a date, who thinks a "palm rose" will surely impress...! But, never mind the real rose peddler, who had his permits
and sold nice roses and was driven out of Ybor by city Code Enforcement, because he was a street vendor! That said, It is sadder, that in this, the 21st century,
that musicians and entertainers work their butts off, to get to a point in their lives, where they can try to work and make
a living at their craft, and then they have to deal with being cheated out of their pay! All because, a client
comes along and decides to use and abuse those professional entertainers, betray their trust, and use them as fodder and folly
for a "reality show" by; refusing payment, mocking the band leader on camera, and afterwards with the couple not having the
courage or decency to face the band and inform the ensemble, just minutes after they have performed, that "the joke is
on them," and they are not "in reality" going to be paid, by that client, Then, upon hearing that the band is not being paid, the
performers and band are expected to; laugh it off, walk away, pack up and go. And, for the most part that is what the band
did, except for the laughing part!!! And,
it is sad, that "stating the truth" over "an incident," where a person, or a group as in this case, has been "demonstratively"
cheated, and then demanding that there be justice, or in this case ...to be paid, is "considered slanderous." When, everything
stated has been the truth! Fortunately, and accordingly, U.S. courts have decided that "stating the truth" or "telling
the truth" are "not slanderous" acts, "nor are they slander"! But, why "bore" with details! Ironically, most of the decisions that have been made by parties outside
of the band, in this matter, have been to the band's detriment, regardless of the facts in their favor. Although,
the band has been placed; in the role of the "jester," to be made "a mockery of," and even cast as "the villain" in this quaint
little "reality show," mellow drama," in fact, the band and its' members remain the "victims" in all of this! Its just another illustration of "talented" and "hardworking"
musicians in the bay area, being treated like second class citizens, by clients and establishments! So, it shouldn't come
as a big surprise, to anyone in Tampa, that an area "non-for-profit" performing arts venue, would feel it "had the right"
to jump into the middle of a pay dispute, siding with the "financial delinquents" of a "reality show," that transpired, entirely,
at another, non affiliated, venue across the bay! I don't know which is more insulting "the ignorance" or "the arrogance...?" All of these events are, examples of, why many generations
of Tampa Bay area native musicians and artists have left the area permanently, and continue to do so year, after year, after
year, after year. And sadly, they will continue to do so, in the future! Why? Because, there is...no respect for the rights of musicians and performers to
get paid on the whole, generally speaking, around the Tampa Bay area. There is none what so ever! But, who cares ...anyway?
*As of 06/04/08, Johnnie no longer performs outside the TBPAC,
as a drifter, named Max, created a disturbance
outside the TBPAC and was confronted by TPD and asked to leave
the premises, resulting in the TBPAC changing their "hands off" policy and deciding to ban all street performers outside
"the Center," ending Johnnie's 5+ year run there.
*As of 02/10/07, Johnnie no longer performs on Centro Ybor Mall,
outside the Improv Comedy Club, due to new ownership and policies
of M&J Wilkow -Chicago, banning street performers from playing on the mall, ending Johnnie's 6+ year run there.
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